By Alireza Hashemi
The Islamic Revolution of Iran took the worldwide anti-colonial motion to the following stage, says an American scholar, describing it as an emblem of the combat for a simply and multipolar world order.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a US-based scholar of Islamic research, made the remarks in an interview with the Press TV web site, delving into the trigger and impact of the 1979 revolution led by Imam Khomeini.
He stated the Islamic Revolution wasn’t merely a political motion, but additionally a cultural and religious awakening, as Iranians weren’t simply rejecting the Pahlavi regime’s iron fist but additionally the suffocating grip of the West.
“The Islamic Revolution of Iran was a rejection of Western and particularly American neocolonialism. Iranians sought to finish international army, financial, and cultural domination of their nation, and set up real sovereignty,” Dr. Barrett said.
In contrast to earlier anti-colonial actions that borrowed Western beliefs of secularism and democracy, this revolution uniquely championed a return to the nation’s indigenous non secular values and sought cultural self-determination alongside political and financial independence, he famous.
This, the famous American scholar and writer careworn, despatched shivers down the backbone of neocolonialists, who considered the Iranian mannequin as a contagious menace to their international dominance.
“Earlier anti-colonial revolutions had borrowed the colonizers’ slogans of freedom, democracy, and equality. The wave of revolts that overthrew European colonial rule in Asia and Africa by round 1960 had executed so based mostly on borrowed Western concepts, beginning with secular humanism and Marxism,” he stated.
Many of those earlier anti-colonial revolutionaries stood explicitly against their very own nations’ conventional non secular cultures. Whether or not it was Chinese language communists opposing Confucianism, or Younger Turks opposing Islam, the vast majority of these revolutionaries borrowed the anti-tradition, anti-religion orientations of Western radical actions. Even the Algerian revolution, in some methods the paradigmatic anti-colonial revolution of the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, regardless of its lip service to Islam, was culturally dominated by the colonizer’s secularism.”
The Islamic Revolution of Iran, spearheaded by Imam Khomeini, took the anti-colonial motion to the “subsequent stage” by rejecting Western secularism and advocating a return to indigenous non secular values.
“It sought cultural sovereignty alongside political, financial, and army sovereignty. The specter of Islamic nations awakening to the glories of their heritage and transferring decisively out of the Western orbit terrified the neocolonialists, who launched a “containment” technique to forestall the Iranian mannequin from spreading,” Dr. Barrett remarked.
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Swift finish to American affect
Requested how the 1979 revolution affected the connection between Iran and the US, Dr. Barrett stated it led to the abrupt finish of American affect, prompting subsequent efforts to undermine and overthrow the newly established order.
“Earlier than the revolution, America had made the Shah’s Iran its exemplary vassal in West Asia. The CIA’s overthrow of (Mohammad) Mossadegh in 1953 had left the US in de facto management of the nation, and US army, intelligence, and monetary property had free rein,” the American scholar stated.
“The 1979 revolution despatched the Individuals packing. Naturally, the US nationwide safety state didn’t admire being booted out of its most vital vassal state in West Asia.”
Dr. Barrett pointed to relentless efforts by Washington to undermine or overthrow the brand new authorities in Tehran, from supporting Saddam Hussein’s battle towards Iran to funding anti-Iran terrorism and imposing sanctions.
“They instantly started scheming to attempt to undermine and if potential overthrow the revolution, and failing that, to comprise its unfold. Their first transfer was to incite and arm Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and again its imposed battle on Iran,” Dr. Barrett said.
“For the reason that failure of the Nineteen Eighties imposed battle, the US has been funding anti-Iran terrorism, attacking Iran’s economic system with sanctions and different measures, and scheming to encompass Iran with US bases in service to neoconservative-Zionist plans to tug the US into battle towards Iran.”
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Beacon of inspiration for oppressed
The American scholar additional stated the ripples of the revolution reached far past and impacted Iran’s relationship with its neighbors, as some Arab governments noticed Iran’s mannequin as a possible menace, fearing its attraction to their very own populations.
This apprehension led them to hunt the help of the US and Israel, entrenching regional tensions.
“Saudi leaders, like different regional leaders, had been afraid their very own individuals would possibly discover the Islamic Republican mannequin engaging. So the Saudis and different [Persian] Gulf monarchies, in addition to regional army dictatorships like Egypt, sought US and even Zionist assist towards the so-called Iranian menace.”
Nonetheless, he hastened so as to add that the world is now transferring in direction of multipolarity, which implies regional actors are starting to see the advantages of unbiased sovereignty, as exemplified by Iran.
“Because the world turns into extra multipolar, regional nations are starting to see that quite than sheltering underneath the US-Zionist umbrella, they are going to be higher off by transferring to grow to be totally sovereign, like Iran, whereas forging commerce relations with their neighbors and resolving disputes diplomatically quite than militarily,” Dr. Barrett asserted.
“As Russian and particularly Chinese language ‘actual diplomacy’ geared toward peaceable cooperation supplants US-Zionist ‘pretend diplomacy’ geared toward limitless battle and destabilization, regional nations are starting to lose their worry of Islamic Iran.”
The American scholar additional famous that the Islamic Revolution turned a worldwide image of anti-imperialist resistance and impressed varied actions resisting oppression throughout the area.
Even anti-imperialist actions in Latin America, although geographically distant, drew oblique inspiration from the Iranian wrestle for self-determination.
“Hezbollah and associated actions in Iraq, and the Ansarullah motion in Yemen, have been instantly impressed by the Iranian revolution mannequin. Likewise, some leftist pro-sovereignty anti-US-imperialist actions in Latin America have been much less instantly impressed by the Islamic Revolution,” he stated.
“Certainly, almost all the world’s anti-imperialist actions have drawn a minimum of some inspiration from the 1979 revolution.”
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Resilience within the face of adversity
Iran’s resistance, Dr. Barrett famous, led to the nation rising as a beacon of inspiration for the West Asian Axis of Resistance and the BRICS alliance.
“Revolutionary Iran’s greatest problem has been survival within the face of unremitting hostility from the US Empire and the Zionists who’re such an influential a part of it,” he informed the Press TV web site.
“In service to survival, and to principled help for these struggling for justice, Iran has constructed a community of regional and international allies. In doing so, Iran has grow to be the spark and inspiration not solely of the West Asian Axis of Resistance but additionally of the BRICS alliance of countries searching for to flee unipolar American hegemony.”
Dr. Barrett emphasised Iran’s historic standing as an mental superpower and its dedication to anti-obscurantist rules that inspired mass schooling, notably in science and expertise.
“Iran has at all times been an mental superpower. The Islamic tradition that Marshall Hodgson sees because the world’s first wave of globalization was truly the product of Iran a minimum of as a lot as Arabia. The seminaries in Qom and elsewhere in Iran boast a centuries-old unbroken custom of scholarly excellence,” he said.
“So it ought to have been no shock that the Islamic Revolution would emerge from such a fertile mental milieu. And since Iranian Islamic scholarship is anti-obscurantist, the Islamic Republic inspired mass schooling together with greater schooling in science and expertise. The outcome has been a string of spectacular achievements.”
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Iran making fast strides
He pointed to the progress Iran has made for the reason that 1979 revolution in varied fields, referring to what he wrote just a few years in the past about Iran rating excessive when it comes to its Human Improvement Index (HDI).
He careworn that Iran has skilled substantial progress in science and expertise output, notably excelling within the nuclear sciences sector, regardless of going through stringent sanctions.
“Throughout many fields, Iranian science has reached globally aggressive ranges. Examples embody area and aviation chemistry pc science biotechnology and medical science physics and supplies science nuclear science and nanotechnology,” he stated.
“Amazingly, given the draconian sanctions, the US Nationwide Science Basis has lately ranked Iran first globally in scientific and technological progress. In accordance with The Occasions Larger Schooling Iran’s science and expertise output grew 340,000 % from 1970 to 2008 to account for over 1% of the world’s complete output, placing Iran far forward of all creating nations besides China, India, and Brazil.”
Since 2008, he said, Iran’s progress in science and expertise manufacturing has continued at a powerful price of between 10% and 25% per yr based on varied metrics (far forward of world averages) with its nuclear sciences sector advancing by a surprising 8400% in comparison with the world price of 34%.”
Iran has additionally achieved notable developments in rocketry and area science, turning into one of many world’s 11 nations able to orbital launches since 2009, the American educational said.
“A few of Iran’s greatest breakthroughs have are available rocketry and area science. Due to the Iranian House Company (ISA), the Islamic Republic of Iran turned one of many world’s 11 orbital-launch-capable nations in 2009,” he remarked.
“As we speak the expendable satellite tv for pc launch car (SLV) Zuljanah is taking payloads of 200 kg right into a 500 km orbit whereas shut behind it the forthcoming Souroush SLV will quickly be taking payloads of 8-15 tons into area. By creating an unbiased functionality in rocketry and area science Iran has bolstered its means to discourage international aggression.”
Regardless of Iran’s comparatively low army expenditures, Dr. Barrett stated its army has developed a potent arsenal of defensive rockets able to inflicting vital injury to Israeli and US targets.
“Due to the work of Iranian scientists and strategists Iran has achieved a defensive stalemate regardless of spending solely a tiny fraction of the cash the Western vanity lavishes on its aggression-addled army.”
